Eighty-eight of the 338 new MPs are women, bettering the last parliament – which had also broken this record – by 12. However, due to a series of electoral boundary changes there are more seats in this parliament, so the percentage of female representation only increased by less than one-half of a percentage point.

Today, women make up 26% of the Canadian house of commons – better than the US House of Representatives, in which women make up just 15.7% of seats, but not as good as the British House of Commons, which has 191 women out of 650 MPs, giving it 29.4% representation.

Including the 88, there have been a total of 315 female MPs in Canadian history.

The number of Muslim MPs in the Canadian parliament is more difficult to establish for certain, because neither Elections Canada nor the clerk’s office of the house of commons keeps data on the ethnic breakdown of members, with the exception of those from First Nations backgrounds.

But the website On Islam counted at least 10 Muslim candidates among those who were elected on Monday, which would be a record for the country according to Al Jazeera.

This is despite what many called a divisive, Islamophobic campaign by the incumbent Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, who chose to use a putative ban on women wearing the niqab during citizenship ceremonies as a wedge issue.

Chedly Belkhodja, a professor, and principal of the school of community and public affairs at Concordia University in Montreal, told the Guardian that there was a rising trend from minority communities seeking parliamentary representation. “In some parts of the country, mostly Ontario, British Columbia, and Montreal especially, new MPs are coming with an ethnic community background,” he said.

“[That’s] very different from what happened in the Atlantic Canada region, he added, “where you have 32 Liberal MPs, but more traditional demography.”

Canada's indigenous people raise voices as youth activism surges

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The new parliament will include a record 10 indigenous members, up from seven in 2011. A record 54 First Nations candidates ran for office, but indigenous politicians will still account for only 3% of the 338 seats in the house of commons.

Trudeau campaigned on a promise of respect for indigenous people, committing to respect treaty rights and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, a 2007 document to protect indigenous people from discrimination.

Before the election, activists pinpointed 51 ridings out of 338 across Canada where the Aboriginal vote could have an impact.

There are more than 1.4 million indigenous First Nation people in Canada, and their population skews young, with the majority of their population under 25. Semi-fluency in First Nation languages is also on the rise.

There are also well over 1 million Muslims in Canada, though exactly how many more is in question. The figure uses data from the census in 2011, and the outgoing Conservative government decided to scrap the mandatory census in 2010, meaning the 2011 census was the last of its kind.

Trudeau has not yet selected his cabinet, but he pledged during the campaign to include an equal number of men and women.